Author: Mark R. Anderson
Date: 07:03:57 08/11/04
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On August 10, 2004 at 20:22:00, Steve B wrote: > >>Spassky to Bush: Arrest me! >hi Danny >interesting post >Spassky of course owes his very livelihood to Fischer,who in 1992 pulled Spassky >out of obsurity to share the 3 million dollar prize fund in Yugoslavia >Spassky was rated 99th in the world at that time > >Best >Steve Spassky, as a former World Champion (1969-1972) was hardly in "obscurity," although it is correct that he was ranked about 100th at the time of the 2nd Fischer match .... mostly I think from the fact that he had not really worked at chess for years and had lost the "eye of the tiger" years before and willingly gave draws to lesser players. Spassky has huge natural talent for the game (as many GMs have pointed out), but his weakness, as Spassky has willingly admitted, is that he is "lazy" (I quote him) and has never liked working at the game, which of course you need to do to be at a high level. I don't think Spassky's appeal to Bush was motivated by the crass money factor you mention. If any of you have ever met Mr. Spassky, you then know that he is a very, very nice person and a real gentleman. He admired Fischer's "pureness" and obvious genius and work ethic, but was always very aware of Fischer's personality problems, which later grew to outright mental problems. As a gentleman, I think that Spassky feels great compassion for Fischer. If Boris made some good bucks from the 1992 rematch, then I say good for him. I can understand how me must feel that it's strange that he returned home to France to smiles and pats on the back, and Fischer got served with an arrest warrant. However, I'm not defending Fischer, just pointing out how odd that must have seemed to Spassky. Boris is showing the same sort of compassion that you might to a deranged person in a mental hospital ... unfortunately, an apt comparison in Fischer's case. Mark
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